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Mar. 15th, 2007 10:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
WOW. What a good episode. So, I am a little slow. Jen guessed Molly was a ghost a few minutes before the reveal, but the only thing I had noticed was that the car had no airbags when it crashed, and I thought that rather odd.
Aside from that, I was really impressed by the way this story was told. I adored Sam explaining the "why" behind the whole mythos of ghosts and why they linger. I really liked Dean as well, but what is new here? Not much. :P
Two more chapters to go. I swear, I used to actually read quickly.
So here's the thing I have noticed about the book. It is incredibly derivative of Tolkien. I mean, by the time Padan Fain is revealed as the not quite human creature dogging the fellowship - I mean, the group - all the way to Fal Dara, I almost rolled my eyes. But then Lan's story was told, and I was just fiiiine again. While the Tolkien elements are strong - and usually that makes me grumpy and ready to put down a book forever - the Aes Sedai element counters with originality, and the characters are compelling. I want to find out what happens to all of them, so I am willing to forgive the Tolkien lifting. After all, is you want to lift elements of fantasy, you might as well lift from the best.
I even dreamed a Wheel of Time dream featuring Lan, Moiraine, and Nynaeve (as I see them from their Mways icons). I think they were on the run, and they were hiding at an out of the way office building which was, of course, overrun by Darkfriends. Whee!
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Date: 2007-03-16 04:44 am (UTC)Though I admit, you're right about Fain. That's what was resonating with the Ways -- it's totally Moria.
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Date: 2007-03-17 04:57 pm (UTC)But I am loving the series anyway. Even Tolkien lifted from Finnish sagas and Norse mythology, so it's all what you do with the ingredients you ladle from the Story Soup
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Date: 2007-03-17 07:06 pm (UTC)Oh, man, now I am turning Lan's "Stop that, you village idiot" in the Ways into that.
It's a lovely image.
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Date: 2007-03-16 11:38 am (UTC)Ooooor he could just have swiped it.
?
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Date: 2007-03-16 05:05 pm (UTC)I don't know. I mean, it's better to have an explanation than not, but it still is borrowing from Tolkien at the end of the day, and I think it's a individual decision that varies among readers to say exactly when the metatextual references go too far for your comfort.
For instance, it's my personal belief that Jordan goes too damn far by half when he introduces the great tracker Hurin as "originating" in his story and being recycled into Middle-Earth only because he was present at the blowing of the Horn of Valere and thenceforth became one of the heroes reborn in every age. Other people don't have a problem with it/don't read the scene that way.
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Date: 2007-03-17 04:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-16 12:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-17 04:52 pm (UTC)I am sorry your childhood loves are tainted!!! My mom started me on Tolkien when I was wee, so in that respect, I was lucky.
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Date: 2007-03-16 09:02 pm (UTC)Less so in later books, though, I think. As the series develops into its own creature, and becomes more embroiled in its own plots and less in the Generic Fantasy Epic structure. Though it's always a mix of the two, of course.
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Date: 2007-03-17 04:55 pm (UTC)I finally finished EotW, and I have to say - nicely done. I was pleasantly surprised by the ending, because things happened I would never expected (ie Green Man's death, aiee!). So now I settle into The Great Hunt.
Also, Lan is a big, stoic weenie. I loff him. :-P
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Date: 2007-03-17 07:08 pm (UTC)He really is.
And yes, the ending of EotW surprised me pleasantly too with all the unexpected twists, and so did later events. It's one thing Jordan is very good about.